


A Planet Without Her Star

by AwkwardDuckProducktions



Series: Team What's Wrong with Healing (revised) [5]
Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: (Not yet), Angst, Anxiety Attacks, Dom needs a hug, Don't let my trauma get in your way, F/M, Hurt No Comfort, Identity Issues, Kay?, Mental Institutions, Post-Finale, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Recovery, Renee needs a hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-16
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-10-11 01:02:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17436905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwkwardDuckProducktions/pseuds/AwkwardDuckProducktions
Summary: So the three decide to get eiffel





	A Planet Without Her Star

"This is your plan?"  
"Can you at least be a little excited?" The mastermind whined with a huff.  
"I don't know, " Isabel folded her leg over the arm of the chair, "There's a lot left to chance."  
"Yeah, there is." Undeterred, Dom continued. "But I have already planned for those situations." He pulled a sticky note off and the rest of the poster unfolded nearly three times its original size. What luck was Isabel cursed with to be looking at the organized mess of plans. "But you two have the easy part."  
"At least for Plan A v.2 through Plan J v.7." Renee, who was well acquainted with his methods, pointed out. "But if we do have to go with Plan J v.8, that means making new identities for everyone and I don't think that will be good for anyone."  
"Also, why is my new name Ripley Hawking?" Her head still spun at the trick he pulled. Amazed he was able to get anything done.  
"Ripley from Aliens and Stephen Hawking." A cheeky grin flashed upon his face. "It's a spin off of your name." She had to admit, that was cute. She also had to admit, it appeared he has planned for everything.  
"The original plan should be fine." Renee rubbed her leg with a grimace. Still unforgiven from being ignored. "However if we do end up going with any version of Plan C, I'm driving."  
"No, I'll be driving." A hint of childlike joy caught in his eyes. "You'll be in shotgun, living up to its name." Her breath hitched, soft enough that it was unnoticeable. Mostly. Isabel heard it. Renee cast her glance down, letting her eyes slide close. They opened but they no longer carried the happiness they once did. These are the eyes of the commander, harder than steel and as equally tired.  
"Sure, whatever. Let's just get this over with."

The day came. They planned for a Tuesday. Less visitors meant less witnesses. Not that they were doing anything illegal, but if the situation required it... less witnesses.  
Renee struggled to get her shoes on. She had been doing better with her fear, especially since Dominik has begrudgingly agreed to carry her. She might be a commander but there's nothing she loved more than being in the arms of her handsome husband. Handsome husband, as if on cue, appeared in front of her. In his hand, there sat the crutches. Long and sliver with arm braces at the top. Renee knew she needed them. Even though the slow integration of her prescribed pain killers was helping, there was still the fact that her leg was, as the doctors put it in professional medical terms, fucked up. The bullet tore through most of the femur, burning her skin and muscles as it did. What was the most shocking was that not a major artery was hit (at least that's what they think because there's no way she should even be alive with a shot like that). They pried into who did the operation at the crash site but Lovelace had made her escape by that point.  
Renee knew she needed the crutches. A voice deep and familiar told her to suck it up and walk. "There's going to be a lot of walking today."  
_You are Commander Minkowski. You don't need them. Suck it up and walk._  
"I know you hate them-"  
"-I don't hate them." The words tumbled out.  
Dominik raised an eyebrow.  
"I don't. I just..." She enveloped in darkness as she tried. But that voice grew in rage.  
_You are Commander Minkowski. You really going to let yourself be at a disadvantage? It's no wonder why you only came home with 50% of your original crew. 33% if you count the plant monster._  
"Ren Ren?" He leaned the crutches against the bed and sat next to her.  
"I'm fine!" Her voice. Her words. Her lips. Not her. Damnit. "Sorry."  
"Do you want to talk about it?" His voice ever so gentle. She feared screams and wasps would fly if she opened her mouth.  
_You are Commander Minkowski. You need to be ready. Ready for their next attack._  
Gentle kisses in her palm. Gentle words in her ears. Her gentle husband here. He's here. She's here. So why couldn't she remember that?  
_Are you really Commander Minkowski? Or are you just the Empty Man? A fake. A nightmare. A failure._  
"Let's go to couples therapy." What?  
"What?" She finally spoke with her own voice.  
"You and me go to couples therapy." Dominik's black eyes like the night sky on Earth, beyond beautiful and safe. "There's things you won't talk about. There's things I want to talk about but can't." He pressed another kiss into her palm. "I love you, but you aren't the same person that went to space."  
"Are you looking to get a divorce?" Her voice. Her words. Her lips. Not her.  
"No, not at all. I just want to learn how to love this new Renee." His kisses. His words. His presence.  
"You're not the man I left."  
"I know." Not the same. There's darkness in him. The stars have burned out in his eyes.  
"I want to learn how to love the new you too." She let herself fall into him. And he fell into her. Their lips met briefly. Their hands intertwined. Their peace settled their weary souls. For a moment, the worst of the years separated didn't matter. For a moment, but that was enough. Enough to give her strength. Enough to give him hope. She grabbed her crutches as Dom helped her with her shoes. She stood full height before settling into the arm braces and offered him a smile. He returned it with joy.  
"Let's go get your Communications Officer."

The drive was an easy one. Trees bare of leaves lined the road the way out of town. Cars that once surrounded them slowly faded into long stretches of empty road. The radio played nothing but distant static. Autumn was giving way to Winter, its final breaths holding on.  
Isabel, stretched out across the backseat, found herself reminded of family trips from her childhood. Her father at the wheel and herself in the passenger seat watching the trees fade into farms and then into towns that look copy and pasted from the last exit. A part of her wanted to dive out of the car and find her way back to them. Another part knew the risks. She's been dead for years. A statement she held close and analyzed like the only clue to find El Dorado. Dark brown eyes slid close as she brought herself back to this car with her two friends. Now was the time to get Effiel. Later, she will try to open that puzzle once more.  
"-All I'm saying is that maybe I jumped to the worst possible conclusion too quick." Renee spoke with a hint of resignation, "maybe he's happy there and they're helping him."  
"Darling, I am..." Began Dom but his voice gave out.  
"Surprised? I know. I never admit to assuming the worst, that was your job. And then my job to stop you from doing that. I flipped the script."  
"Well have you met the people taking care of him?" Isabel joined in the conversation. Renee turned from her seat to try to see her, but gave up after Isabel kept leaning opposite than where she was looking.  
"I have and let's just say, you'll be the only one who might be liked here." Dom spoke easily yet his hands nearly white around the wheel.  
"Me? Why?" Her eyes held his reflection but they did not hold her. They trapped her. Unmoving like stone.  
"Yeah, why?" Renee added. "Like I know they're looking for reasons to lock me up because they don't like me-"  
"-What did you do?" She tore herself away. Her body snapping back out of the black hole that is his eyes.  
"They don't like midnight visits." Renee shrugged but then threw her arms in the air. "But that's besides the point! Why don't they like you?"  
"I'm not ready just yet." A sigh like defeat, Dom responded. "As soon as I am, I'll tell you." He kissed his wife's hand and stared back at the captain. "Both of you." His eyes no longer burning with a dark fire. Smothered into barely embers. "Deal?"  
"Deal." Renee agreed softly. She returned his gesture. Isabel nodded. Her tongue still frozen.  
"You have to say deal, Isabel."  
"Deal."  
"Thank you." He resumed his position at the wheel. Silence once again filled the car. Nothing but the soft static whisper from the radio and the harsh winter winds outside. 

_This really helps their case_ , Isabel thought as they pulled up to the ancient building. Red and white bricks in sharp contrast with the dull colors of the sky. The lack of any identifiable structures, no columns nor arches nor windows, somehow added to the dread that it caused.  
"I've never seen it in the daytime. Looks even worse at night" Renee stated as Dom pulled into a parking space.  
"Looks even worse on the inside." He added. The two others shared a puzzled look with each other before turning it to Dom. "You'll see."  
They all climbed out, Isabel held Renee's crutches as she got resituated in them. They walked side by side by side across the parking lot. The commander watch in her peripheral the man she called her husband. It was the little things that clued her in of his suffering while she was gone. His jaw clenched and hands in his pockets. Warm eyes like the earth after a summer's rain seemed cooled and frozen. His walk even, the was something... it was like he was always prepared to stand his ground or disappear into the shadows. Once long ago, he was a man of bright love. A man who had his plans and plans variations but threw them all out the window in the middle of 6 PM traffic just to put the ring on her first. A man who could get anything he wanted but chose to use that for the good of the community. And that man was still there, beside her even. If the everwinter that held his soul ever thawed. Maybe it was just the approaching chill in the air, but she felt cold beside him as they entered the building. Almost as if he had just crawled his way out of the morgue.  
"Good God, it's the both of youse." The receptionist, a woman of fiery red hair and a dead look in her eyes, exclaimed.  
"Hi Cheryl." Renee greeted first. Her thoughts fell back into their boxes under lock and key as she fell back into routine.  
"Good morning Cheryl." Dom seconded. His smile all jerk and no play. Routine they have done for years. Luckily, that never changed.  
"What do youse want?" Cheryl was not one for pleasantries, especially about these two.  
"We came to visit Doug." Ever so fake cheerful, Renee informed.  
"Are you with them?" Cheryl turned to Isabel. Hard brown eyes bore into her.  
"Unfortunately yes." The joke fell flat on its face against the cold stare of the receptionist. "I'm Lovelace."  
"Guessin youse here to see em too."  
"Nah, I just wanted to check out the architecture." Again, as if she didn't learn, the joke fell. This woman was a veteran in stubbornhood. "I'm here to see him too."  
"Youse all outta luck." She took her seat again and started to file away papers. "Family members only."  
"There should be a note on his file saying we're allowed to visit." They were prepared for this. Dom noticed that every time they sent Renee back home, they didn't mention when she could come visit. Which is odd for many reasons, but Dom refused to clue them in all of those reasons.  
"Youse not family." The receptionist, with finality, stated. Not even bothering to check.  
"We know." Those words slashed away something precious inside of Renee. "But unless you want to go against the government in court, you'll let us in." A flash of an award winning smile. Somewhere deep in her heart, something broke. His smile never used to hint cruelty. But the his lips curled made her uneasy.  
"It was one of the stipulations we had." _Stick to the routine,_ she chided herself. "In exchange to not talk, we got visitors' rights to see Doug."  
"I mean, one quick phone call and the whole world knows." Dom piped up, pulling out his phone.  
"Darling, who should you call first? BBC? NBC?" She looked at the corner of his eyes because she knew if she looked straight into them, there would be no stopping her tears.  
"Let's see, I have both and more on hand." He smiled at her and for a moment, he was the man from years ago. Cheryl snarled, the anger barely contained by her cat eyed purple glasses then pulled out his file.  
"Whatta know? I see where they put youse lot on here." The receptionist pulled out three visitors stickers and handed them out.  
"Under notes?" A smirk Renee had loved hooked itself on Isabel's lips. If Isabel joined them, they were going to be unstoppable. That and whatever darkness that haunted her husband.  
"Take your badges." The woman with fiery hair mumbled with an evil scorn in her eyes. "Down that hall, down the stairs to the bottom floor."  
"Thank you!" The happy couple replied in unison. Things may have changed but Renee was glad not everything was gone. 

They walked down the empty corridor, the sound of their steps and Renee's crutches striking the tiles announced their arrival to no one. Her thoughts however, were convinced otherwise. Everything was so loud. Their descent down the stairs echoed off the concrete walls. Someone was bound to notice. Someone was bound to hear her particular struggle, not that help from her two companions would have been any quieter. It was better this way. They didn't have to worry about her should things go south. She imagined the shouts of the doctors, the guns of the security guards. Dominik might excel in making plans, but this one was hers. Hers to hold on to. In a cruel sense, she was kinda happy she brought the crutches. One for the door handles and one as her weapon. Should things go south, of course. Just to buy them more time.  
They made it, much to Renee's surprise, to the bottom floor. In an almost horrendous ironic way, there by the stairs were parked a set of wheelchairs. She schooled her breath as she shook her head when Dom offered up one. "It's either the wheelchair or the granola bar."  
She still only shook her head. Fully aware of how much energy she was diverting to just pretend she's not about to collapse. Fully unaware of Isabel appearing in front of her eyes.  
She whispered something. A question. Renee knew the answer. She also knew that the answer might convince them to leave. Try again later. No, she needed to see him now. To get him to safety.  
"I'm fine." Her teeth hard against each other. Her voice a prisoner. Dark eyes trapped hers as she watched her friend lean close to her ear.  
"I did not carry your bloodied body just so you could destroy yourself." There was no plea, no begging in her voice. Just her sadness she tried to hide. "Is this too much?" She repeated herself.  
"Yes," Renee finally admitted, "but I'm not leaving without him."  
"I didn't ask that." She backed away and gave a smile of understanding. "Nor would I ever. How about you eat the granola bar your husband brought and him and I will do the talking." Her words built a dam for her building worry. A shaky breath came out. She could do that. For him.

They continued down the hall, Isabel taking up the side of Dom while Renee clanked behind slowly. She kept track of the steady rhythm, as her friend would rather die than to admit needing help. Renee may not admit it, but if it was offered then that's another story. The three silenced by their own thoughts as they walked. The door at the end opened itself to let a tall yet young nurse out. She glanced up and saw the three, which gave her a shock.  
"Did you guys get lost? The common room is upstairs." Her slight midwest accent felt forced. Captain Lovelace noticed the way she picked at her scrubs.  
"I'm Captain Lovelace and this is Dominik Koudelka and Commander Minkowski." Two can play at this game. "We're here to see our former crewmate, Officer Douglas Effiel." The nurse's smile tripped before righting itself.  
"I'm sorry but he's asleep."  
"We can wait." Dom, ever so charming, let his own smile warm his face.  
"It will probably be just better if you left." She tried again. Her hands clutching the hem of her shirt.  
"You know, it sounds awfully suspicious to tell us to just go home. This isn't some place you drive by everyday. We can wait." He insisted, his smile growing into an evil grin. It took only two steps with his long legs to get close to her. "Unless you don't want us to see something. Just remember, whatever you're hiding, I can find." Dom bent nearly in half to get into the poor nurse's face. "I did break the Goddard story."  
"Let me get my boss." She scurried off back into the door, leaving two very confused people.  
"Dom?" Renee whispered, her own traitorous mind created realities she couldn't bear.  
"Not yet, love." His real smile, one of warmth and love, returned as he turned to look at her. "We made a deal." She and Isabel nodded, questions pushed back into their throats. Just another thing they'll have to save for later. Which unnerved Isabel greatly, but to see Renee in reluctant peace eased the clutch around her stomach.  
They pushed through the door and found themselves in a small room with large windows that peered into another dimmed room. Monitors lined the walls all reading something different. Renee couldn't tear her eyes away from the lump on the bed in the other room. Isabel found herself fixated on the angry doctor walking towards them. His hair white and sleek like marble floors was perfectly contrasted by the blood red of his face. "You have no right to be in here!"  
"This doesn't seem like what you were promising back at the crash site." His voice like a blade against a stone, grinding meticulously to sharpen his weapon.  
"I meant everything that I said there and that's what I'm trying to do without reporters snooping around." The doctor puffed out his chest. Arms crossed and stance wide. Like an angry chicken.  
"I'm not snooping. This is Captain Isabel Lovelace and Commander Renee Minkowski of the Hephaestus. They wished to see their friend." Isabel gave a small wave and an enraged glare.  
"You can't pull your tricks on me, Dominik. Just because you brought-"  
"-my wife." The doctor's face turned. All the air from his sails and lungs stolen from him.  
"Your... wife?"  
"My wife." Once more Dom said. All too rigid like a crumbling statue. "My involvement at the crash site or in the contract was not 'snooping,' as you like to call it." Each breath like a fireplace bellows stroking a flame almost smothered. Renee felt her hands grip tighter, the want to stop this was outweighed by the need to let it happen. "Now I know my wife and I agreed to have visiting rights. Why haven't she been allowed to see him?"  
"We are in-" The doctor with a destroyed bravado stumbled and tripped on his words. "Her arrival- This is-"  
"-if the next words are 'for the greater good,'" Lovelace interjected keeping a close side eye on her friend, "I suggest you don't finish that." It was Dom's turn to give a puzzled look. "We just want to see our friend."  
Renee lost focused of the conversation. Transfixed on the lump on the bed. How many times has she been in this position? The person she was supposed to watch after, drifting further and further away. Time and time and time again, she had toyed with his life. Dragging him close only to push him away once more. She wasn't a good commander. Hell, she wasn't even good.  
The lump on the bed shifted. She felt her body being pulled towards the door window like a nail to a magnet. One foot popped out from the worn blue blanket. Then another. They extended in unison. The lump stretched upwards until the blanket fell off to the side.  
There sat a man with silvery black hair, cut close to the scalp. His cheeks sunken with eyes to match. With each breath, his skin pulled against itself. The corners of his lips tried to move up in a smile, but just that mere action tired him. Yet he still spoke in a soft warm voice. "Hi Commander."

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah it's not the best thing written but i just wanted to be able to post something finally. Leave a comment if you want me to continue.


End file.
